Global Warming May Hurt Some Poor Populations, Benefit Others

The impact of global warming on food prices and hunger could be large over the next 20 years, according to a new Stanford University study.

Researchers say that higher temperatures could significantly reduce yields of wheat, rice and maize -- dietary staples for tens of millions of poor people who subsist on less than $1 a day. The resulting crop shortages would likely cause food prices to rise and drive many into poverty.

But even as some people are hurt, others would be helped out of poverty, says Stanford agricultural scientist David Lobell. "Poverty impacts depend not only on food prices but also on the earnings of the poor," said Lobell

Lobell and his colleagues recently conducted the first in-depth study showing how different climate change scenarios could affect incomes of farmers and laborers in developing countries.